After years of pondering retirement and suggesting it would arrive sooner rather than later, Louisville coach Rick Pitino appears to have decided, as he put it at a Tuesday news conference, “I don't know if I can live without basketball.”

Pitino, 60, agreed to a contract extension at Louisville that runs through the 2021-22 season. Pitino will be just short of his 70th birthday when the term expires.

Only last December, Pitino had pronounced that wouldn’t coach past 2017, when his previous contract term was to end. “When you're 59, you're realistic that you don't have a whole lot of years left," Pitino said then. “My contract's going to run out in 2017. I'm not coaching anymore after that."

His attitude changed when he began to consider how coaching friends such as Jim O’Brien retired and then un-retired and also when he evaluated how much the game meant to him.

"My life is spent in the gym between the lines -- and it's a damn good life," Pitino told reporters Tuesday.

Pitino has been coach at Louisville since the 2001-02 season, following an unsuccessful stint as coach and president of the Boston Celtics. He has led the Cardinals to two Final Fours, in 2005 and 2012, and to the 2009 Big East regular-season championship.

“He’s a young guy. I’ve said it many times: He might be 60 but he’s going on 35, maybe even younger than that,” Louisville athletics director Tom Jurich said in a statement. “He’s got an incredible amount of energy, and he’s worked extremely hard. We just love the direction this program is going. I’d really like to see him continue on as long as he possibly can.”

Pitino’s base salary will remain $3.9 million, with a $600,000 retention bonus to be paid every other year starting in 2014, according to WDRB-TV's Eric Crawford. There also are additional incentives for various achievements, including Big East championships and high scores in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate.

Pitino owns a 629-234 career record in 27 seasons as a head coach. He has led Providence, Kentucky and Louisville to Final Fours with six in total. Only four coaches in history have reached more Final Fours. He and Kentucky’s John Calipari are the only coaches to take three schools to the Final Four. Pitino is fifth in career tournament wins, with 42.

“The wins just mean longevity,” Pitino said. “What I'd like to win is another championship."

Pitino’s most recent team came close, surging through March 2012 with an improbable run from a 10-8 regular-season finish to the Big East Tournament championship and then on to the Final Four from a No. 4 seed with victories over Michigan State and Florida. The Cardinals pushed Kentucky hard in the national semifinals before falling, 69-61.